Game Rules of Conduct

[VirtualPups]

Additional Game Rules of Conduct


Copyright Policy

Due to players selling or giving away non original works as their own originals, we felt it needed to post a clearer idea of the rules and what you're facing if you get caught doing this.

Stolen art, traced art, art that has been copied and any art that violates copyright in anyway will result in a minimum of 24 hour suspension from the forums. This amount of time increases depending on the severity and amount of stolen works and if caught a second time, forum account will be suspended indefinitely. This includes free art and lineart. Just because you give it away, doesn't make it legal either.

Things that will get your thread locked, moved and account suspended:

Taking someone elses completed art, leaving or removing the signature / copyright.
Taking someone elses lineart, whether it be from a free line art site or a non use lineart and removing the sig / copyright and trying to sell it.
Attempting to sell / give away layouts from free sites, claiming it as your own.
Tracing someone elses work or photos.
Copying someone elses work or photo.
Using someone elses lineart that is stolen off copyrighted work. It's your responsibility to make sure the work you post here is legit to use, regardless of who ripped off the original artist.
Basically, if you have to question it, don't do it.
Reproducing model horses, this has never been allowed and violates the companies copyrights.


If you have permission from the owner of the original copyright work, to use it, reproduce it or what not, then you will need to provide proof of the written permission (scan) or a screen shot of the email. Please edit out your personal info from the screen cap / scan. This information will be verified with the copyright holder as will any suspected copyright infringed works.

Works produced from stock photos / art will be allowed, so long as they follow the rules of the stock photo / art owner and also MUST include a link to the stock photo / art. Note: just because it is on flicker, doesn't mean it's a stock item free for your use. All traced, copied work will also need a link or links provided with it of the original work or works used.

If you see a listing you suspect is stolen / copyright infringed work, please do not take matters into your own hands. Message one of the Game Admins with a link to the thread and links to the work and we will handle it from there.

VP has a very large artistic community, and the vast majority of us frown on copyright infringement. We wouldn't want it done to us, and we hate to see it done to other people, regardless of if they are part of VP or not. If you post stolen works, you can guarantee you will be found out by a community member and reported. Is making a small amount of virtual cash worth loosing your privileges, clients and respect over?

A few good sites of info regarding copyright, referencing and things artists should know. If anyone has other good sites of info, please feel free to pm them to me and I will add them to this list.

http://painting.about.com/cs/artistscop ... htfaq7.htm
http://books.google.com/books?id=_2fuF2 ... &ct=result
http://vintagephoto.com/reference/copyrightarticle1.htm
http://painting.about.com/od/copyrightf ... ts_FAQ.htm



Real Life Cash Sales

Sales for real life cash are not permitted. Special circumstances, such as fundraisers, may qualify for an exception. You need to contact an Op regarding this.



Eventing Rules

Player can run events any time after -1 days as long as
1) There are at least 8 entrants and
2) There are at least two different players entered (Note that this is players, not accounts. You cannot enter 8 dogs from two of your own or shared accounts or lease them to someone else to enter)

Ops will be running events at -4 days as long as
1) There are at least 4 dogs
2) There are at least two different players entered

Ops will also run any event that is filled to capacity as long as it's -1 day.

Ops recognize that VP doesn't have a lot of players who event and there aren't many events, so instead of the 10 needed, you only need 8 and instead of waiting until -7 days for us to run, we'll run at -4.

However, we also feel we need to allow as many people as possible to enter, to allow as much competition as possible to make the events as fair as possible. If you need/want your event run before -4 days and you don't have the 8 required, you will need to enter more dogs. Each player can enter up to 4 dogs in an event so if only two players are entered into an event and they both want the event to run before -4, they will need to enter all they can.



Layout Banners, Icons, Clickables, etc.

Non game related banners/icons/adoptables etc will be limited to 10 per layout.

The reason behind this is complaints about pages taking a very long time to load, even on high speed connections. It also slows the game server, creating lag for everyone.

These items are not related to Virtual Pups, hence are not necessary for the game. However, we understand players want to express their individuality, so rather than outlaw all of them, have instead limited them.

Game related items will not be affected or counted, such as banners which link to other kennels/dogs, personal pictures for dogs or kennels, etc.

Non game related items include anything that is not game related. Images of famous people, books and movies, many of the premade glitter graphics, Clickables such as dragon eggs and adoptables. You are allowed up to 10 of these in combination.



Picture & Personal Information

It is not permitted for any user to give out descriptions of themselves (i.e., appearance). If you wish to give out location, state is as narrow as you are allowed to mention. It is suggested you use region (i.e., east coast). You are not allowed to post pictures that show faces of you or your friends/family.




Kennel/Player Name Changes

To prevent scamming and players that request name changes after breaking rules, ops will no longer be changing kennel and player names on request. Names CAN be changed for the following reasons:

-The name is misspelled. If you make a mistake, we'll be happy to correct it for you.

-The name is inappropriate. If you see an offensive or rule-breaking name, please alert one of the ops so it can be changed.

-The kennel has changed hands/is under new ownership. If you bought a sponsor account from another player and need your own name added to it, we can do that.

Added: This requires it to be an actual sale, transfer that has used a Game op as a MM for the sale. Changes will NOT be made for accounts that have been traded or given away to another player, or sales that did not use an op for a middleman.

-The kennel name includes a breed and you no longer work with that breed. Say your ranch is Willow Pomeranians, but you change to Great Danes. We will remove "Pomeranians" from the name, but you WILL be required to think up a name that does NOT have a breed in it. We won't keep changing your name when you switch breeds, we will change your name ONCE to a non breed specific name.

-The kennel name includes a specialty and the kennel is no longer that specialty. Say your ranch is Willow Breeding, but you change the kennel to a rescue. We will remove "Breeding" from the name, but you WILL be required to think up a name that does NOT have a specialty in it. We won't keep changing your name when you switch specialties, we will change your name ONCE to a non specialty specific name.


Name changes must be requested through support. When making a name change request, please include the reason for the change. Name changes will only be done on sponsor accounts that have been sold, and said transaction must have gone through a MM.

Added: Also note that all Ops reserve the right to deny a name change for any reason. This may include but not be limited to:

Known attempts of trying to exploit the system to get name changes done.
Excessive requests for name changes or too many previous name changes done. (This will most likely be enforced if you have had 2 or more changes done within a years time)


Player Made Rules

Player made rules cannot and will not be enforced by Ops. In the case of dog sales, once the dog is removed from your possession the new owner can do as he or she pleases. In the case of services, you are required to provide a refund if you do not provide the service. You cannot keep the earnings because a player violated one of your rules (i.e., no contract notes). This is considered scamming and scamming is not allowed in any form.


Shared Accounts

It has always been policy that players shouldn't share accounts. Rented accounts are considered shared accounts. There is no rule against it, but probably half the major problems we run into are with people who share accounts. That's not to say there's aren't shared accounts that never have problems, but when there's a problem, shared accounts double or triple the work for us.

From the welcome page http://virtualpups.com/
The first and three easy rules to never lose your account are as follows:
1. NEVER give out your log in information, not in any case should someone need to access your account. If you give out your password, VirtualPups holds no responsibility.


The most common way people lose shared accounts is that they are stolen by the person they shared or rented to.
The second most common way for people to lose accounts is because someone they share or rent the account to breaks rules and gets banned, meaning every account they've accessed also gets banned.
The third most common way for people to lose account is because someone on the shared account breaks a rule while on the account, but it's not discovered until after you log in, meaning your IP is the last on and every single one of your own accounts, including the shared account is banned.

If someone is banned and it's found that they are given access to an account after the fact, every one of the kennels owned by the person who allowed them access may also be banned.

And it isn't always the person sharing the account. We've had owners of accounts break the rules and the person who paid to rent or share the account is the one who lands in trouble. At the least, they lose any money they paid or made while on the account as well as any dogs left on the account.

Please, Ops can't say this enough, don't share accounts.



Please note, Ops are also referred to as Game Masters, Moderators (Mods), and Administrators (Admins). You can tell who is really an Op by their green names (on the forums), their giant "Game Master" (in game), or by their @ sign (in chat). Ops will never contact you regarding official business from an account that isn't clearly an Op account. Ops will never ask you for your password, email address, or any other contact information.